As the first cycling event in a series ends, Mark Lyons of Mark Lyons Recruitment who organised the event on behalf of AFPA Trust takes time to reflect on what has been achieved.
Firstly, the most important part is that we have been able to raise £5000.00 for The Christie Charitable Fund which supports over 60,000 cancer patients per annum.
With the week-long event getting underway on Friday 7th May, it was amazing to see the personal effort that was put in. As we headed into the weekend with over 1,350 miles accomplished and 35,000 feet of climbing by Sunday evening. The race was on!
Although this event was about taking part, everyone really embraced the fun aspect of it by having their own personal goals. The main challenge for myself and some of the others was the weather!!! Many of the outdoor cyclists braved the elements in what would normally be better conditions for this time of year. Some cyclists, wanted to say they had cycled every day, some wanted a bit of fun and one cyclist – Tim Mawr from DF Capital headed out on a tandem bike for a few miles to embrace the spirit of the event. For others, the competition was about winning the “Yellow Jersey” or the “King of the Mountain” titles.
There were some superhuman efforts, which saw three riders battle it out, with Julian Mellors from Wesleyan Bank finally taking both titles personally achieving over 500 miles and 22000 feet of climbing. We must also commend Warren Nelson from VitrX for achieving 480 miles and James Harrowsmith from Barclays Asset Finance for achieving 14,768 feet of climbing.
When we got to the end of the week the individual hard work had really turned into a major team effort. The conversations we had together and the comments we shared with each other on Strava, created a great comradery as well as some tension and urge to do a bit more to keep in contention for the daily podium places. There have been a number of people I had spoken to who brought it up in conversation as a great idea. Hopefully they will get involved next time. It has been fantastic for the charity but also great to raise awareness for AFPA trust.
We cumulatively achieved over 2600 miles and 115,000 feet of climbing in the end which an amazing result and a big thank you to everyone who got involved. As well as the cyclists who took part, we had some great support from LTi Technology Solutions who were the Tour Sponsor as well as the seven Stage Sponsors – Tower Leasing, VitrX, Wesleyan, Global Lifecycle Solutions, Victis, Propel Finance and DF Capital
Now that it is over, and I have had time to reflect I feel it’s success will now make this a permanent calendar fixture.